This invention relates to sprinkler heads primarily used in, but not limited to, agricultural applications, and specifically, to a side-load, multi-nozzle shuttle for such sprinkler heads.
For most rotary type sprinkler heads where a stream of water from a fixed nozzle impinges on a rotatable water deflector plate, the nozzle is removable and interchangeable with nozzles of different size, i.e., nozzles with different orifice diameters. Reasons for changing the nozzle size include varying flow rates based on factors such as weather, crop to be irrigated, crop maturity, soil moisture, soil type, etc. Flow rates may also be varied for specific events such as “chemigation” where a chemical or fertilizer is added to the water for a limited period of time. Typically, however, in order to remove and replace the nozzle, the water supply must be shut off and the sprinkler head at least partially disassembled. It is also oftentimes desirable to simply shut off one or more of the many sprinklers mounted on, for example, a truss span of a linear or center-pivot irrigator, in order to provide a desired sprinkling pattern based on one or more of the factors mentioned above. For a large irrigation system with, for example, more than one hundred sprinklers located on a single-truss span, this can be a very time-consuming process.
While there have been proposed solutions to the disassembly problem using various, fairly complex multi-nozzle turret arrangements for selectively installing nozzles of different size, the lack of simple and reliable nozzle-change and shut-off features in a rotary sprinkler head can be problematic. It would therefore be desirable to have a quick-change nozzle system that facilitates a manual nozzle change-out process, or where appropriate, an automatic nozzle change-out process that may be operated remotely to control some or all of the individual sprinklers on a linear or center-pivot irrigation truss span (or other irrigation system) in accordance with a predetermined or site-specific irrigation program.